First, the local view of team supervision
1. What is coach supervision?
First of all, let's see, what is coaching supervision?
In the book "High Performance Team Coaching", the author Peter Hawkins defines it this way.
He believes that coaching supervision provides an external perspective, coaching in terms of coaching professional growth, while coaching team coaches in terms of practice and work.
2. What are the ways of coach supervision?
Team coaching supervision can be done in a variety of ways. When coaches do both one-to-one coaching and team coaching, the former usually adopts 1A and 2A approaches, and team coaches usually adopt 1B and 2B approaches.
3. What is the significance of coach supervision?
In "The Road to Growth for Professional Certified Coaches", we mentioned that coaches need to be professionally supervised in order to grow.
The growth of professional coaches usually starts from one-on-one coaching, that is, personal coaching. As individual coaches, they consciously accept professional supervision, and with the help of external perspective and supervisory relationship, they continue to improve their coaching skills and inner state.
As the coaching skills continue to improve and the scope of work continues to expand, individual coaches gradually move towards group coaching and team coaching. The complexity of team coaching is far greater than that of one-to-one coaching.
Hawkins points out that as a team coach, working with entire teams, organizations, and larger systems requires perceiving and understanding complex system dynamics, which is nearly impossible for individuals.
He says:
He prompts team coaches to avoid focusing too much on the individual and interpersonal dynamics of the team, and instead focus on all levels of information within the broader systemic context, and to create and maintain an alliance with the entire team, working for the benefit of the entire team.
Still in the book, the authors quote Manfred, "Leadership coaches must use themselves as tools, taking into account their relationships with the team and individual team members and their reactions to them."
It was only after several years of coaching practice that I came to experience this perspective.
In the early days, we were obsessed with various techniques, tools, processes and methods, and after a while we would realize that tools are created by people and tools serve people. As human beings, we can not be trapped by the tool, but to use it to develop themselves - the team coach himself is the best use of coaching tools.
Tools and the need to maintain maintenance, let alone people? The tools need to be maintained, not to mention the people, and the people are so precious.
4. Who can be a coaching supervisor?
Hawkins pointed out that high-quality supervisors should have two conditions, receive systematic team coaching training, and receive systematic supervision training.
5. How does coaching supervision work?
In Chapter 13 of Coaching High-Performance Teams, Hawkins talks about the six-step model in detail, which is mainly applied to coaching supervision in the form of team, but can also be used in other forms of supervision.
The Six-Step Model for Team Coaching Supervision
I. Determine the Contract
Ask the team coach/supervisee what they want to get out of the supervision.
II. Setting the Context
Ask the team coach to spend one minute explaining the type of team, important background information.
III. Exploring Team Dynamics
Ask the team coach to draw each team member on a piece of paper using symbols, shapes, and colors, and then draw the relationships between them and their stakeholders.
?1. step by step, draw the positions and roles of the individual, the relationships, and the team coach;
?2. step back and explore what the team needs as a whole, using a metaphor to describe it;
?3. add a key stakeholder graphic outside of the team, exploring the wider systemic context of the change the team needs/wants/desires to create , and the shifts that need to be made to do so.
Fourth, clarify the coaching focus
Ask the team coach to step into the roles of the team, the team coach, and the system, clarify the three-way contract and intent, and decide where the coach needs to focus.
Through the role experience, help coaches understand their own intentions/interests/inputs, and clarify the needs and expectations of the team, organization, and system, as well as the expected progress and results.
V. Facilitate change on both sides
Encourage the team coach to develop the changes needed by the team and the team coach based on the findings from the first four steps.
? Focus on facilitating the team coach into experiential learning, rehearsing important lines for meeting with the team, and finding the right inner dynamics for emotional shifts.
Sixth, review the review
Review the contract, review with the supervisee the most helpful content, as well as the part that will be even more helpful, recognize what has been done, and continue to learn and improve.
Second, the six-step model of practical experience
Since October 2021, I initiated the "High Performance Team Coaching" *** readings, every Sunday morning from 7:00 am to 8:30 am, with nearly 20 partners *** read this classic book. The readings are led on a rotating basis, with one chapter read each week***.
After the ****reading, depending on the leader's needs, we will conduct a ****reading review to provide feedback and empowerment to the leader in terms of process setup and internal state. Sometimes it's one-on-one, sometimes it's a group review.
After the Chapter 13*** reading session, we did our usual review. As a coaching supervisor, I improvised and used the six-step model. This group coaching supervision brought us unexpected gains.
We used two methods for this review, coach supervision and group review. Comparing the two approaches, the experience of the supervisee is: in the process of supervision, he found himself very creative, saw more possibilities, and felt y empowered.
My own experience is that the traditional review is more focused on the matter, focusing on how to do better in this leadership; while the coaching supervision focuses on the person, giving more space to the supervisor, with deeper self-awareness, which can promote more growth.
And the reason why it can have such a divine effect, to a large extent, stems from the third and fourth steps - the team sculpture and role change brought about by the sense of experience, on both sides of the supervisor are very helpful. As the author says in the book:
What's even more interesting is that even though it's just a ****reading lead, not a real team coaching, it still plays a very important role. It made me realize that the part is the whole, everything is an entrance, and all the time I am practicing.
As usual, let's end this article with the words from the book.
Today is the 1129th day since I started my coaching career, or it will be the 2524th day before I become an MCC. Coach Xiaohui, February 14, 2022